


Safe

by eccentricities_of_kitties



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kara is a strong independent bamf, Male-Female Friendship, Platonic Relationships, Winn is a precious smol marshmallow, mild violence, nothing graphic, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2018-12-29 21:49:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12094137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eccentricities_of_kitties/pseuds/eccentricities_of_kitties
Summary: Kara and Winn fight, and Winn thinks a lot about feels and stuff :/ lmao great summary, right?this was written when I was younger, that's why it's such low quality writing lol excuse it, but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it





	1. Chapter 1

“You shouldn’t have lied to me.”

 

Winn sighed. “I know, I’m sorry, but James -”

 

“Leave him out of it, I already yelled at him. He wouldn’t have been able to do it without you building a suit, being his backup, enabling his vigilante justice!” Kara raised her voice, fiddling with her cape agitatedly.

 

“He _totally_ would have done it without me. You don’t understand how badly he wants to help, be a hero, not just stand on the sidelines,” Winn explained. 

 

They were in Kara’s apartment. Winn had come over to watch a movie, but talk had turned to the revelation of Guardian’s identity, and Winn’s concurrent aid with the espionage.

 

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand. I _trusted_ you,” Kara yelled, feeling her eyes get hot and stifling her laser ability.

 

“Maybe you should have trusted us to be able to handle it,” Winn said, impassioned. “We’re not being idiots with this, we’re being careful.”

 

“There’s no way to be careful, not for you. Especially you,” Kara added, one hand on her waist and one dragging through her hair, stressed.

 

“What, I gotta be tall and athletic to be a hero? James wouldn’t be nearly as safe as he is with me backing him up. And yeah, if it comes down to a fight, I wouldn’t run the other way.”

 

“You weren’t built for fighting.”

 

“That doesn’t mean I can’t try!” Winn said, getting angry.

 

“Yes it does. I’m telling you: this is something you can’t do!”

 

“I’m not just the tech guy who gets pushed around anymore, Kara. You’re not my Mom.”

 

Kara smiled acidly. “Seriously. Just stop.”

 

“Just because you never got to have a real -”

 

“ **Stop**!” Kara shouted, and pushed Winn, sending him across the room, slamming into and smashing the tv. She put her hands over her mouth. “God…”


	2. Chapter 2

Winn coughed, curling in on himself and Kara sped over to help him.

 

“I’m so sorry, Winn, god, I’m so sorry.”

 

Winn held her hand, and smiled weakly. “Guess I’m getting you a new tv for Christmas?”

 

Kara laughed like a sob. “Shh. Let me take you to the DEO, alright?”

 

“I’m okay…” Winn said, then groaned when he sat up and looked down at himself. “Oh. Wow, that hurts.”

 

His arm was bent strangely and his clothes were peppered with a few holes and scratches  from shattered glass.

 

Kara picked him up delicately. “It’s alright, it’s okay, it’ll be fine, right, Winn?”

 

Winn’s head lolled against her. “Shhhupergril’s holding me, haha.”

 

“Ohhhhh god,” Kara muttered, already out the door and on her way to the DEO.

 

She was there in no time, but it felt longer holding an injured, bleeding Winn in her arms. J’onn and Alex were quick to notice her sudden arrival.

 

“Who did this?” J’onn demanded, already signalling underlings to take Winn to be treated.

 

“I can have a team ready in ten minutes, where’s the incursion?” Alex asked, following along to the medical wing.

 

“There’s no threat,” Kara said, and they looked at each other, confused.

 

“Was he mugged again?” J’onn asked, calming and gazing at Kara with penetrating eyes.

 

“No. It was me,” Kara admitted, forcing the words out. “We were arguing and...I just...got mad. It was meant as a shove, but I was so angry - he was talking about my Mom, and I just...lost it.”

 

Unsure of how to react, J’onn and Alex stepped away. Kara stood beside Winn’s bed, guiltily watching the medics resetting his shoulder and spraying the cuts with anaesthetic and antiseptics.

 

Winn was still semi-conscious. “Kara…”

 

Kara came a little closer. “I’m sorry. I don’t know how I could do this.”

 

Winn got a little clearer. “I’m sorry about your Mom. I shouldn’t have gone there.”

 

“Don’t forgive me so casually, Winn.”

 

“I have to. I love you. Not like that,” he added, frowning. “I think. But yeah. Don’t beat yourself up over this. You’re a hero, you save people, you just...it was me.”

 

“Don’t. Please. I need to make this up to you. You can’t just let it go so easily,” Kara pleaded, holding the uninjured hand.

 

Winn grinned through a wince. “Fine, I’ll only forgive you if you do me a favour? Make peace with James over this Guardian business. Don’t try to stop him.”


	3. Chapter 3

Winn shut the bathroom door and took a deep breath. Too much. Ever since what happened with Kara, he’d done his best to smooth things over. Replaced the tv and set up the new one, acted normal at work and even accepted an invitation to marathon Star Wars with her. But it was hard to keep up the pretense just seeing her a few minutes a day at work. A whole sleepover?  _ Very  _ difficult. 

 

He couldn’t stand to let her think he wasn’t okay. But truth? He wasn’t. Sometimes when she raised her hand to rearranger her hair, or crouched to take off, or came in on a hard landing...he flinched. She hadn’t seen so far. Although his dislocated shoulder was almost completely healed, and the cuts really weren’t that bad, he still felt tiny spikes of fear around Kara. He hated it. He loved her, and it killed him that he no longer felt safe around her. This sleepover was his attempt to prove to himself that he could be around her without having some pathetic panic attack. It wasn’t going well.

 

For starters, she was hovering. Asking about the arm constantly, offering snacks every 2 minutes and basically just overcompensating in the friendship department. He’d escaped into the bathroom for a moment alone after she touched his arm to ask a question about the droids.

 

“I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid,” he chanted under his breath. 

 

“Winn?”

 

He jumped, and stammered, “Uh, y - yeah?”

 

“You know I can hear you talking, right?”

 

Damn. Super hearing. “I’m alright, I’ll be out in a sec.”

 

He flushed the toilet and washed his hands, even though he hadn’t been. Stalling going out.

 

“What’s wrong,” Kara asked, giving him plenty of space and sitting on the left sofa. 

 

Winn shrugged. “Nothing.”

 

“ _ Are  _ you afraid of me?”

 

“...No.”

 

“Your heartbeat’s going crazy and your ears went red. You’re lying  _ and _ afraid.”

 

Winn sat on the opposite. “It’s not what you think.”

 

“You’re afraid of me because of what I did,” Kara said, shame flooding her cheeks.

 

“Okay so maybe it is what you think,” Winn admitted. “I just don’t want you be so hard on yourself. You made a mistake.”

 

“A mistake that could have cost you more than a dislocated shoulder.”

 

“I know. And, yes, I’m finding it hard to come to terms with. But that’s on me, not you. Anyone can get mad and pushy in a fight.”

 

“That doesn’t make it okay,” Kara whispered, staring at her hands. “I just meant to shove you, to show you how mad I was. But...I forgot how strong I am.”

 

“I know. I know you’d never hurt me on purpose. But apparently my body doesn’t know that. I’ve been having involuntary fear responses, but I’m not afraid of you being evil or actually trying to hurt me or anything you could overthink in your super engine brain.”


	4. Chapter 4

Kara sighed. “How do we fix this.”

 

Winn sat beside her. “Exposure therapy. I spend more time with you until my body accepts that you’re not a threat?”

 

Kara shifted away slightly. “Sounds like you’ll be putting yourself through unnecessary stress, I don’t want that for you.”

 

“I’m fine. It’s like listening to that one jazz song your grandpa’s obsessed with until eventually it’s not so bad,” Winn said, mirroring the smile that finally broke out on Kara’s face.

 

“Thanks, I’m your grandpa’s bad taste in music,” she laughed. “What do we do now?”

 

“Exposure therapy requires us to do whatever would be most uncomfortable, building up slowly from small irritants. Like...this,” Winn said, sliding his hand into Kara’s. “This is platonic by the way, I’m not making a move.”

 

“You don’t have to keep saying that. You’re not some malcontent nice-guy-who’s-really-a-creep. You’re my best friend. Nothing you ever do will be weird,” Kara said, squeezing his hand apologetically.

 

Winn gave a soft sigh. “Good to hear. I worry sometimes. That ever since I kissed you, you’ve had this image of me as some pining, stalker mess. I know my place, and it’s by your side. No matter what.”

 

Kara snorted. “Getting kinda cheesy. So is this okay? Hands?”

 

Winn nodded. “I’m okay. Next step would be a hug or prolonged touch.”

 

Kara reached across his lap. “Juuust getting the remote. How about this?” she put her arm around him. “Is it okay?”

 

“Yeah, yeah press play,” Winn said, trying to relax.

 

They watched Luke deliver lines about sand awkwardly and didn’t talk for a while, the tension growing slightly as they were both intensely aware of Winn’s growing discomfort with her closeness.

 

“It’s okay,” he said, knowing she was about to offer an out. “It’s kind of the point to make me uncomfortable. I’m going to get used to it.”

 

Kara wasn’t sure. “You’re not a goldfish being introduced slowly to a pond, you’re a person and your feelings are valid.”

 

Winn was stubborn. “It will work.”

 

“You’re sweating, and shaking.”

 

“Right, super smell. Do you want me to spray?”

 

Kara laughed. “How can you be worried about b.o at a time like this?”

 

Winn shrugged. “Let me keep trying. Please?”

 

Kara pursed her lips. “I’ll be monitoring your heartbeat.” 


	5. Chapter 5

Winn relaxed into Kara and had more success. They laughed together at the prequels and discussed feminism and George Lucas. At some point, Kara folded out the sofabed so they could watch the last couple of movies sprawled out. Somehow they ended up with arms interlocked, Winn’s back to Kara’s front. Not as part of the test, which they had forgotten, but a natural progression of their comfort around each other. They fell asleep like that, with no tension between them about feelings or romance. 

 

Kara’s hand on his waist, her voice in his ear asking if his shoulder was okay, the feel of skin on skin under a homemade quilt. Of course, he still had that feeling for her in the back of his mind, but this was more than enough. Her trust. Her absolute confidence in him. It was worth more than ruining a friendship with whatever romance they might have had if things were different.

 

“Winn?” she whispered, disturbing his reverie. “You awake? It’s finished.”

 

“Mm,” he said sleepily. “Did you love it? Tell me you loved it?”

 

“It was okay. Are you?”

 

“Yeah…” he muttered, waking up a little. “I’m good. You?”

 

“I don’t want to move,” she sighed, and warm breath ghosted across Winn’s neck. “Is it okay...if we fall asleep like this? It’s not weird? For you?”

 

“Of course not,” Winn whispered, and felt her hands interlock around him, legs aligned behind his.

 

“Good,” she whispered back, on the verge of sleep. “Don’t read into this, okay?”

 

“Of course not,” he repeated, and let himself drift slowly to sleep, Kara’s arms still around him. Safe.


End file.
